


Familiarity

by thousandmonkeys



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-11
Updated: 2014-10-11
Packaged: 2018-02-20 18:42:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2438849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thousandmonkeys/pseuds/thousandmonkeys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's annoying how people have this tendency to stick where they shouldn't. Things don’t go anywhere, and this stranger-not-stranger doesn’t know her and maybe thats a good thing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Familiarity

Her eyes narrowed, staring across the street the turned back of a boy. Stopped before a ramen shop, he seemed engrossed in the plastic replicas: Tonkotsu, ¥1000 seemed to be catching his interest, from what she could see. Hair brushed the corners of his face; paper white—definitely bleached, she could smell the ammonia from here— the hastily trimmed ends looked familiar.

A little too tall to be him, but had been a year. He could’ve grown taller in that time, couldn’t he? She’d no idea; Ayato hadn’t so much as grown as _sprouted_ , the beanstalk, and going to an all girls school meant the only high school boys she’d ever seen was at the café.

The boy must've felt her gaze; he twisted slightly, turning around. It wasn’t him. She busied herself with the grocery bags, appearing for all the world like a delinquent high-school student skipping out on school. He didn’t seem to notice her, and soon turned back to the display. He pulled out a tattered wallet, and thumbed through its contents, before sighing and leaving.

She kept seeing him  _everywhere_. It was starting to get ridiculous.

Touka watched the disappearing figure, and shook her head, pulling the hood of her raincoat down over her face, hiding it from view. Niigata was painfully smaller than Tokyo; if the wrong person got curious, it would be all too easy to track her down in this town. Not that finding her would be an  _easy_ matter, especially with Yomo running interference, but she'd gotten a decent job for once; the kindergarten children were sweet and the pay was adequate. And Niigata University’s biology course was _just_ getting into human biology—

_ぽつぽつ_ _…ぽつぽつ…_

She glared at the damp pavement; spring rains were the _worst_. They didn’t come down heavily enough, unlike proper rain, and they made her kakuhou ache with a dull thrum, pounding steadily with each heartbeat. Ayato’s grudging apologies were no help, but it was more than she’d expected from the proud boy. _He_ certainly had done a number on her idiot brother.

Him _again_. Why was it that her thoughts always wandered down the same pathways…

It was starting to get ridiculous, really; a lookalike at a convenience store, sure. Definitely possible if  _he_  was still alive. Working on a construction site? Lab coated medical student? Nowhere near as likely. 

Damn Kaneki and his stupidly common, shaggy-ass college student hair. And frame. And face. 

Damn him for just  _going off and getting killed and--_

She caught herself, and turned on the spot, walking in the opposite direction. The rain was lightening up anyways; maybe the coffee stall was open now. It was cheap, sure, but somehow the roast tasted like a cheap rip-off of Manager Yoshimura’s blend. Maybe if Anteiku’s coffee had been run through water and dry leaves. And had been left to cool in some musty fridge for a few days. And then heated up with a lukewarm thermos.

…At least there was no milk in it. Or weird soy liquids. That passed for milk, apparently. God knows; they all tasted rotten, anyways. Why did humans do that to perfectly good coffee, anyways?

She fiddled with the plastic bags as she walked, trying to stuff oversized shampoo bottles into her handbag. The rustling of plastic was starting to grate on her nerves; why didn’t they use paper bags out here? Such a tiny town…

Speaking of tiny towns, there it was: the only decent coffee stand in the whole damn city of Niigata. The smell of freshly ground coffee wafted towards her, so _warm_ in the already dimming day.

Except there was a snake of people already there. Great.

And the coffee machine was sputtering like a bird being strangled. Perfect.

And she walked into the very last person into the queue. Ah, such a wonderful day…

Preparing herself for an awkward wait for just a damned cup of coffee—she was going to double size it, she decided; the amount of trouble was just too much—she forced a sheepish smile on her face, looking up at the man she’d inadvertedly elbowed. Or was it shouldered? More shouldered than elbowed, but eh…

“Sorry for bumping into you. My friends say I need glasses, but I tell them my vision is fine—“ she said, before trailing off as she got a proper look at the boy’s face. Pursing her lips, her smile faded.

She. Wanted. To. Scream. Another Kaneki lookalike; was this the ghost of Kaneki past? Pining away for him like a freaking _lover_ …!

Too tall, she decided, dismissing the resemblance. Can’t be him.

Although, this particular lookalike looked more like her co-worker than the usual maybe-its-his-hair passerby; his hair was a faded grey, almost like a pigeon, or washed out black clothes, and his eyes looked familiar as well, albeit no where near as haunted as Kaneki’s had been.

She sounded like a lover. Gross.

Touka shook her head, pulling up a smile once again. “No, you just look like a friend of mine; although, you’re much tallerthan he is.” It was like looking at an aged-up photograph, really. Stuff Kaneki into a suit and dye his hair and you would get the stranger.

"No problem. You can say I’m used to people walking into me.” He laughed—and even the laugh was painfully similar to her friend’s, stirring up dust-covered memories of Anteiku. “Nice to meet you. I’m Sasaki Haise." He paused, as if waiting for her name.

She stared at the proffered hand, wondering if she should give her alias instead; it was what her identity card said, anyways, and after the CCG stormed Anteiku, it was probably too dangerous. “…Nakajima Kaoru.” She’d been carrying the name for eight months now, but she doubted she would ever respond to Kaoru. 

They lasped into silence and shuffled forward as the line shrank; it seemed like the stall owner had managed to wrestle the machine into submission, and it was hissing steam once again.

She broke the silence first. "I haven’t seen you around before.” That much was true; although, she’d managed to acquire the local accent quickly enough to match her current life story: moved to the city when eight after parents separated, spent time shifting between homes, only child. “Are you just visiting, or do I have a new neighbour?” she asked lightly. She could feel danger from him, and although she doubted that the boy was a ghoul, he carried himself in the experienced fighters did. A Dove? He had no suitcase though—

"I'm on an errand, actually. My friend decided to use me as a postman instead of you know, my actual  _job_." He huffed, and fiddled with the collar of his shirt; a salaryman’s white shirt, it looked neatly ironed. “She heard about this place on the Internet, and since I was in the area, she asked me to pick it up.”

She considered the sky; the rain couds were disappearing but it was still pretty damn cold. And damp. Mustn’t forget the damp. “Won’t it get cold?” she asked, frowning.

“Probably. I’m taking the train back to Tokyo in about eight hours, so it’s probably going to be goop.” He—Sasaki, was it?—said, as he shuffled forward to close the gap in the queue.

“Tokyo?” Touka tried to look as much a country bumpkin as she could; curiosity flickered across her face. “I heard its positively infested with ghouls…Isn’t it dangerous?” Any chance to get information from somebody in the area, after all. Yomo had put a stranglehold on her internet, and since he was paying the bill, she couldn’t object too much…

“Don’t worry about it. I’m pretty sure the gangs will be dealt with soon,” he answered, confident. “The CCG is really strong, after all.” 

She laughed weakly, and nodded in assent. She shifted ever-so-slightly to pat at her pockets, feeling the reassuring handle of her switchblade. More than ever, the lack of a functional kagune weighed on her mind. This Sasaki was definitely CCG.

 Well, at least she knew he wasn’t Kaneki.

What was a Dove—and I had to be a dove, lack of a suitcase non-withstanding— doing out _here_? They stuck to Tokyo, mostly, and unless there was a binge eater, nobody cared about a bunch of small town ghouls. And to the under-staffed organisation, Niigata was so far down on the priority list as to be non-existent.

 “You don’t believe me?” She looked back up; genuine worry appeared to suffuse the boy’s features. “Are you alright?”

“Ah, no, no,” she hurriedly reassured him; god, she was getting sloppy. “It’s just, we don’t really get those monsters out here…Ghouls seem to be like, a fairytale, you know?”

“Fairytales, hm? I wish that was all they were…” he said, and she jumped; he’d echoed her thoughts verbatim. How she wished that was all they were. Monsters in fairytales _chose_ to eat human meat to survive; ghouls were _forced_ to. “Maybe then people like you could visit Tokyo without getting scared,” he continued. 

“That…would be nice,” she finally said.

Really though, the boy and Kaneki were too similar. Always _caring_ about other people. And the more Touka looked, the more Sasaki looked like Kaneki. Even their names were similar; human parents had a real thing for repetition, didn’t they? 

“—Oh, it’s my turn already?”

 She peered around him, and heaved a sigh of relief. Thank god. Only two more people left until her new acquaintance’s turn. And then he would be gone. And she wouldn’t have to make small talk with somebody that could probably kill her without minimal fuss.

 Her kakuhou gave a twinge.

It was too easy to talk to him, really; she couldn’t shake the familiarity. And Touka had never been too good about not trusting people. Give or take a few minutes, and she would probably be giving him her real name. Kaoru was a _damned ugly_ one.

It seemed like Sasaki’s coffee was ready, and he turned around, smile still as fixed as ever on his face. “See you, Kaoru!” he said, doing a little half-wave. The coffee sloshed around ominously, and he quickly stilled his hands. “Come to Tokyo some time, I’ll show you around." 

“Are you going to buy me a ticket?” she asked, before laughing it off. “Nah. I’ll be around here if you ever want to find me,” she said. Not that she would be coming back here; too dangerous, even if the boy didn’t suspect a thing. “You should go, the people behind us might start throwing daggers soon.”

Except he was already gone, and she was talking to empty air.

 

 

 

The coffee vendor made a sound, annoyance clear in his voice. “Are you done, miss? I don’t have all day, you know.”

 “Ah, sorry.”

**Author's Note:**

> (24.7.16) EDIT: It's come to my attention that my fic is on TVTropes!!!! :O That's been a goal of mine for so long, you have no idea. Thank you to whoever put it up!!!!


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